Nicolaus Copernicus short biography in Polish. Nicolaus Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus was able to freeze and set in motion in the minds of his contemporaries. The researcher revolutionized ideas about the structure of the Universe. Biography, main ideas and influence of the scientist’s discoveries on today’s science, Interesting Facts about Copernicus - for your information.

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Little Nikolai was born on February 19 in the city of Torne, which is now called Toruń and is located in Poland. The question of which country the scientist was born in, Prussia or Poland, causes controversy among researchers. The fact is that the borders of these states were constantly changing.

Childhood and youth

The future researcher was the fourth child in a wealthy merchant family. He was very friendly with his older brother Andrzej. Subsequently, while receiving education, young people will travel around half best universities Europe, will become comrades and wonderful friends.

The fate of the future research scientist was influenced by a number of circumstances, the country where Nicolaus Copernicus was born, and the conditions in which he lived. In 1482, the father became a victim of a severe plague epidemic that devastated Europe, and by 1489 the child was left an orphan - his mother died. The family was left without property and means of food. The children were taken in by Lukasz Watzenrode, their maternal uncle.

The guardian was a rather stern man, a priest of the local diocese, but the uncle became very attached to the child and became closely involved in his education. Lukasz had a doctorate in canon law and later received the position of bishop. Brilliant for the time, it allowed him to provide additional training to his nephew in order to prepare him for further studies.

In 1491, Nicholas and his brother Andrzej began their student life at the Jagiellonian University under the patronage of their uncle. The Faculty of Arts of the city of Krakow became the starting point on the path to becoming a researcher. After graduating from university, the young man planned further studies, but Lukasz Watzenrode did not have the money for it.

In 1487, in order to earn money for his education, the young specialist accepted the position of canon in his uncle’s diocese in absentia. He and his brother used the fee they received in advance to study church law. In Bolonia (Italy) in 1496, Nicholas first became acquainted with astronomy, a science that later became his life’s work, thanks to the teacher Domenico Maria Novara.

Attention! The University of Bologna became the site of Nicolaus Copernicus's first decisive step on the path of new discoveries, and 1497 was the year of the first astronomical observation.

The results of the seminal research were the first steps towards the creation new system based on observations of the full and new moon. The young scientist realized that the distance between the natural satellite and the Earth was equal when passing these points, which indicated that the night star was moving in a circle.

Copernicus's scientific activities, hobbies, and research were very diverse. Nikolai was engaged in painting, studied Greek language, studied mathematics. After graduating from the University of Bologna, the young scientist taught exact sciences people of the high society of Rome, helped Pope Alexander VI himself to comprehend astronomy.

Social activity

The year 1506 marked the end of training. At the age of 33, Nikolai received medical, church and theological education and the position of clergyman of Frombork.

1512 turned out to be a year of losses. Brother Andrzej falls ill with leprosy and leaves the city, Lukasz Watzenrode dies, and the scientist becomes a canon of the cathedral of the city of Fraenburg. After 1516, Nicholas received the honorary position of chancellor of the city of Olsztyn. Here he shows himself to be a brilliant military strategist, taking command in the war against the crusaders. The fortress managed to withstand significant superiority enemy forces.

By 1521, the scientist returned to serve in the diocese of Frombork. The inventor's talent helped Nikolai build a hydraulic machine that provided water to all the houses in the city.

The scientist also did not abandon his passion for medicine. After retiring in 1531 to concentrate on writing the main book, he provided medical assistance free of charge, helped many people cope with their illnesses. In 1519, the scientist fought the plague epidemic.

Scientific developments

Nicolaus Copernicus was absorbed in his basic ideas and discoveries all his life. He spent 40 years writing the main work of his life, “On the Rotation of Celestial Bodies,” which was invaluable for the development of astronomy. He scrupulously collected information, data from his observations, systematized the information, compiled tables, and made amendments. He completed work on the book 3 years before his death.

The position of canon allowed him to study in parallel scientific research. For astronomical observations, the scientist equipped the tower of the Frombork fortress.

The discoverer of the doctrine of the heliocentric system was lucky not to encounter persecution from adherents of dogmatism. Copernicus's theory became an important step in the history of science, making a real revolution in the best minds of that time. The scientist’s views were very radical for that time, but he lived a fairly calm life.

Important! The doctrine of the movement of celestial bodies was prohibited and declared a heresy only in 1616, long after the death of its author, by which time the theory had already spread widely throughout Europe.

Concept heliocentric system developed by the young scientist closer to 1500. The theory had a lot of supporters. Among like-minded people, the researcher distributed the manuscript Commentariolus, where he outlined brief summary your hypothesis.

The scientist died of a stroke in his native Frombork in 1543. Last months Copernicus's health was critical. He suffered paralysis of one half of his body and was in a coma before his death.

The last years of Copernicus' life

Let's list interesting facts about Copernicus

1. The position of canon, as a church figure, implied a vow of celibacy. Fascinated by science, Nikolai at first did not attach any importance to this. In 1528, being a mature, accomplished man, he unexpectedly fell in love with Anna, the daughter of his friend Matz Schilling from hometown Torun. The girl soon had to leave the scientist due to the discontent of the Church.
2. The researcher’s grave was considered not found until the rise of genetics and the corresponding examination in 2005. The last refuge was Frombork, which meant a lot to the scientist.
3. The year 1535 was marked by recognition of the researcher’s work by the church, which was facilitated by the Pope himself. The truths that Copernicus revealed to the world were initially favorably received by the ministers. Afterwards, conservative religious leaders saw the teaching as a threat to existing dogmas.
4. The meteorite and the element are named after the researcher.
5. There are museums dedicated to his memory in Torun and Frombork.
6. Throughout his life, Nicholas was accompanied by a faithful student named Retik, who helped conduct research, published works, and was a good friend.
7. The discoverer would hardly have seen the first edition of his life’s work, but his friends brought him a printed copy.

Description of the theory

The book “On the Rotation of Celestial Bodies” consists of 6 volumes, where the author described his ideas about the device:

• the first is dedicated to proving the spherical shape of the Earth and the Universe;
• the second talks about the rules for calculating the location of celestial bodies;
• the third part describes annual cycle Earth movements;
• the fourth talks about our planet’s satellite, the Moon;
• the fifth tells about the properties of celestial bodies in general;
• sixth - about the reasons for changes in latitudes.

Book “On the rotation of celestial bodies”

The main ideas of the heliocentric system can be briefly described by 7 theses:

1. There is no common center of rotation for all celestial bodies.
2. The earth is not the center of the world.
3. The stars are motionless on the surface of the sphere that bounds the Cosmos.
4. The Earth rotates around its own axis and around the Sun.
5. The trajectory of movement of celestial bodies is a circle.
6. The distance between the Sun and the stars is immeasurably greater than the distance of the luminary from the Earth.
7. The movement of the Sun observed from Earth is a consequence of the rotation of the planet itself.

Later, the teachings of Copernicus were supplemented by Johannes Kepler, who calculated that the trajectory of the movements of celestial bodies is not a circle, but an ellipse. It was also found that stars are not at all devoid of movement.

Attention! Now the main ideas of Nicolaus Copernicus do not look so revolutionary, but for the 16th century they were an important step in the development of astronomy, they changed the ideas of people of that time about the greatness of the world, the mysteries of nature, and the place of man in the Universe. These were important discoveries, given the dominant geocentric theory of the era.

Polish university

Residents of Poland are proud of the achievements of their compatriot who lived 4 centuries ago. There is the Nicolaus Copernicus University in the city of Torun, which trains young scientists. Educational institution was created in 1945 and ranks fifth in prestige among other universities in Poland. University classrooms are equipped the latest technology. The university opened its doors to future doctors, chemists, biologists, physicists, astronomers, mathematicians and artists.

Nicolaus Copernicus, short biography which will be discussed in this article, is an outstanding scientist. He is not only a great astronomer who created the heliocentric Copernicus, he was a good mechanic, mathematician, canonist, and also the man who laid the foundation for the real first earthly civilization in the entire history. The scientist had at his disposal only primitive instruments, made by him with his own hands. But this did not stop him from making a number of discoveries during his thirty years of observations of the celestial sphere.

Copernicus, whose brief biography demonstrates great power reason ordinary person, was born into a merchant family in 1473 in the city of Torun (Poland). His father died early, so the boy was raised by his uncle, Bishop Lukasz Wachenrode. The future scientist studied in Krakow and Padua and studied astronomy, medicine, and law. After training, he was elected a canon, worked as a doctor and secretary of his uncle at his residence (Lidzbark).

Copernicus, whose short biography is not only white stripes, had an inquisitive mind and knew how to observe. After the death of his tutor, he moved to Frombork, where he settled in a secluded tower, which still stands today. Nikolai set up an observatory in his house, so we can say that he made his discoveries exclusively at home. In addition, he served as a canon, treated the sick for free, developed a coin system, which was later introduced in Poland, and built a hydraulic machine. In this place the great astronomer spent his entire life later life. But this did not prevent him from actively participating in the life of his country: more than once he was entrusted with important tasks, which he coped with glory. For example, he negotiated between warring monarchs and corresponded with the best minds of the time.

Nicolaus Copernicus made revolutionary discoveries for his time. At first, he only wanted to improve the heliocentric system developed by Ptolemy, which he outlined in the Almagest. However, his work was significantly different: Nikolai more accurately determined the routes and also added his own comments to it. Thus, the Polish astronomer turned the Earth from, as previously thought, into one of the ordinary planets solar system. His tables were significantly more accurate than Ptolemy’s, which had a positive effect on the development of navigation. He outlined all his observations and calculations in the work “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres”, small in volume, but with very important content.

Copernicus, whose brief biography cannot but delight his contemporaries, published his work only in 1543, almost before his death. This saved him from the persecution to which his followers and disciples were later subjected. He quietly left this world and was buried in the Church of St. John in the city of Torne.

Catholic Church for a long time considered Nicholas’s work to be heresy and did not recognize it. However, the teachings with a revolutionary character were continued and further revealed by Galileo Galilei. Copernicus, whose brief biography is outlined above, was awarded a monument only in the nineteenth century. But now they are available not only in Krakow, Warsaw, Thorn, Regensburg, but all over the world.

Name Nicolaus Copernicus Almost everyone who studied at school heard it one way or another. However, information about him, as a rule, is placed in one or two lines, along with a couple more names of outstanding scientists who strengthened the triumph of the heliocentric system of the world - and Galileo Galilei.

This triumvirate is so entrenched in the minds that it sometimes causes confusion in the minds of even high-ranking politicians. Former Speaker State Duma Boris Gryzlov, defending the controversial scientific developments of his longtime acquaintance and “scientific collaborator” academician Petrika, threw out the phrase that immediately became famous: “The term pseudoscience goes back far to the Middle Ages. We can remember Copernicus, who was burned because he said, “But the Earth still turns!”

Thus, the politician mixed the fates of all three scientists into one pile. Although in fact, Nicolaus Copernicus, unlike his students, managed to happily escape the persecution of the Inquisition.

Canon "through connections"

The future creator of a new picture of the world was born on February 19, 1473 in the now Polish city of Torun, into a merchant family. Interestingly, there is no consensus even about his national origin. Despite the fact that Copernicus is considered a Pole, there is not a single document that the scientist wrote in Polish language. It is known that Nikolai’s mother was German, and his father, a native of Krakow, may have been Pole, but it is not possible to establish this for sure.

Copernicus's parents died early, and Nicholas found himself in the care of his maternal uncle, a Catholic priest. Luke Watzenrode. It was thanks to his uncle that in 1491 Copernicus entered the University of Krakow, where, among other sciences, he became interested in astronomy.

Nicholas's uncle, meanwhile, became a bishop, and in every possible way contributed to his nephew's career. In 1497, Copernicus continued his studies at the University of Bologna in Italy. It is interesting that Nikolai did not receive any academic degree either in Krakow or Bologna.

Since 1500, Copernicus studied medicine at the University of Padua, after which he passed the exams and received the degree of Doctor of Canon Law.

After spending three years in Italy as a practicing physician, Nikolai returned to his uncle, the bishop, under whom he took the position of secretary and confidant, while simultaneously serving as a personal physician.

The career of Copernicus, who by that time held the ecclesiastical rank of canon, was completely successful. While remaining his uncle's secretary, Nikolai managed to engage in astronomical research in Krakow.

The Plumber and the Plague Winner

The comfortable life ended in 1512, along with the death of his uncle, the bishop. Copernicus moved to the town of Frombork, where he had been nominally listed as a canon for several years, and began his spiritual duties.

Copernicus also did not abandon his scientific activity, starting to develop his model of the world.

It must be said that Copernicus did not make a big secret of his ideas. His handwritten text “Small Commentary on Hypotheses Relating to Celestial Movements” even circulated among his friends. However, it will take the scientist almost 40 years to fully develop the new system.

The astronomical works of Copernicus became known in Europe, but at first there was no persecution of the concept he proposed. Firstly, the astronomer himself rather carefully formulated his own ideas, and secondly, the church fathers for a long time could not decide whether to consider the heliocentric system of the world a heresy.

Heliocentric system of the world. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Copernicus himself, without forgetting about the main work of his life, managed to make his mark in other sciences: he developed a new coin system for Poland, as a physician he actively contributed to the elimination of the plague epidemic of 1519 and even designed a water supply system for houses Frombork.

Since 1531, Copernicus was only concerned with the development of his heliocentric system and medical practice. His health began to deteriorate and last years Students and like-minded people helped him in his work.

In the last year of his life, Copernicus was struck down by paralysis, and a couple of months before his death he fell into a coma. The scientist died in his bed on May 24, 1543, without ever seeing the work of his whole life published - the book “On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres.” It was first published in Nuremberg, in the same year 1543.

Life's work

It should be noted that in his criticism of the Ptolemaic picture of the world with the Earth at the center of the Universe, Copernicus was far from the first. Ancient authors such as Nikita Syracuse And Philolaus, believed that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa. However, the authority of such luminaries of science as Ptolemy And Aristotle, turned out to be higher. The geocentric system finally won when the Christian Church made it the basis of its picture of the world.

Interestingly, the work of Copernicus himself was far from accurate. Affirming the heliocentric system of the world, the rotation of the Earth around its axis, the movement of planets in orbits, he, for example, believed that the orbits of the planets were perfectly round, not elliptical. As a result, even enthusiasts of his theory were quite puzzled when, during astronomical observations, the planets turned out to be in a place other than that prescribed by Copernicus’ calculations. And for critics of his works it was a gift.

As already mentioned, Copernicus happily escaped persecution by the Inquisition. The Catholic Church had no time for him - it waged a desperate struggle against the Reformation. Some bishops, of course, even during the scientist’s lifetime accused him of heresy, but it did not lead to real persecution.

Only in 1616, with Pope Paul V, the Catholic Church officially prohibited the adherence to and defense of the Copernican theory as a heliocentric world system, since such an interpretation contradicts Scripture. It’s a paradox, but at the same time, according to the theologians, the heliocentric model could still be used to calculate the motion of the planets.

It is also interesting that Copernicus’ book “On the Rotation of the Celestial Bodies” was included in the famous Roman Index of Prohibited Books, a kind of medieval prototype of the “black list” of prohibited Runet sites, for only 4 years, from 1616 to 1620. After that, it returned to circulation, albeit with ideological changes - references to the heliocentric system of the world were cut out of it, while leaving the mathematical calculations that underlay it.

This attitude towards the work of Copernicus only spurred interest in it. Followers developed and refined the theory of the great scientist, ultimately establishing it as the correct picture of the world.

The burial place of Nicolaus Copernicus became known only in 2005. On May 22, 2010, the remains of the great scientist were solemnly reburied in Frombork Cathedral.

Reburial of the remains of Copernicus. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The Catholic Church admitted its guilt in denying the correct theory of Copernicus only in 1993, when the Pope was John Paul II- fellow countryman of Copernicus, Pole Karol Wojtyla.

Rebellious Bruno and humble Galileo

It is also necessary to mention the fate of two followers of Nicolaus Copernicus - Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilee.

Giordano Bruno, who not only shared the teachings of Copernicus, but also went much further than him, proclaiming the plurality of worlds in the Universe, defining the stars as distant bodies similar to the Sun, was very active in promoting his ideas. Moreover, he encroached on many church postulates, including the immaculate nature of the conception of the Virgin Mary. Naturally, the Inquisition began to persecute him, and in 1592 Giordano Bruno was arrested.

Giordano Bruno. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

For more than six years, the inquisitors sought the renunciation of the scientist, who was also a monk, but they failed to break Bruno’s will. On February 17, 1600, the scientist was burned in the Square of Flowers in Rome.

Unlike the works of Copernicus, the books of Giordano Bruno remained in the Index of Prohibited Books until its most recent publication in 1948. 400 years after the execution of Giordano Bruno, the Catholic Church considers the execution of the scientist justified and refuses to rehabilitate him.

Galileo Galilei. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Galileo Galilei, whose works and discoveries in astronomy were unusually great, did not show the stamina of Giordano Bruno. Finding himself in the hands of the Inquisition at almost 70 years of age, after torture and under the threat of “sharing the fate of the heretic Bruno,” Galileo in 1633 chose to renounce the heliocentric system, of which he had been a defender throughout his life. And, of course, it never occurred to the unfortunate old man, who barely escaped the auto-da-fé, to throw the daring “But still she’s spinning!” in the face of his tormentors!

Galileo Galilei will be finally rehabilitated only in 1992, also by the decision of Pope John Paul II.

The world's fundamental science is based on the guesses, theories and works of scientists who were sent from above to become discoverers. The Polish canon Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543) appeared to the world as such a unique person. The thinker’s guesses and predictions, formulated over more than half a century in only a few fundamental scientific works, brought many talented followers and popularizers of his theories to the medieval bonfire of the Inquisition. He was born in the 15th century - too early for alchemists and pseudoscientists to recklessly recognize the correctness of his scientific conclusions.

The breadth of his scientific horizons is truly unimaginable. He made his main works and discoveries in the fields of economics, mathematics and astronomy. At the University of Krakow, where he entered in 1491, the main emphasis was, naturally, on medicine and theology. But young Nikolai immediately found a branch of science that he liked - astronomy. Academic degree He failed to obtain one in Krakow, and from 1497 he continued his education at the University of Bologna. His astronomical observations were supervised by Domenico Novara. Copernicus was lucky to have a mentor in Bologna - he was lectured by the father of the European medieval mathematical school, Scipio del Ferro.

Works devoted to another field of science - economics - date back to the same period. “Treatise on Coins” (1519), “Monetae cudendae ratio” (1528).

Copernicus Fortress

Copernicus' education was completed in 1503 at the University of Padua. In those years, the worldview of a young admirer of astronomy began to take shape, which he could calmly practice by turning the northwestern tower of the Frombork fortress on the Baltic into an observatory.

Nikolai's scientific works, dating back to the beginning of the 16th century, were devoted to new theory construction of the world - heliocentric. It was first presented in the monograph “Small Commentary...” (lat. Commentariolus). In 1539, Copernicus's student Georg von Rheticus simple and in clear language spoke in his book about the meaning of discovering a mentor. The main book that Copernicus worked on for more than forty years was called “On the Rotation of Celestial Bodies.” He constantly made corrections to it, based on increasingly accurate astronomical calculations.

Having read Ptolemy’s thoughts on the structure of the world for the first time, Copernicus immediately noticed that the conclusions of the scientific ancient thinker were very controversial, and the method of presentation was very complex and difficult to understand for the common reader. Copernicus' conclusion was clear - the center of the system is the Sun, around which the Earth and all the planets known at that time revolve. Some elements of Ptolemy’s theory still had to be recognized - the Pole could not know what the orbits of the planets were.

A work on the fundamental postulates of the heliocentric system was first published by Georg Rheticus in Nuremberg in 1543 under the title “On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres.” Fearing persecution by the Inquisition, the book's publisher, theologian Andreas Osiander, wrote a preface to it. He called the theory a special mathematical technique designed to simplify the process of astronomical calculations. Copernicus's monograph as a whole resembles Ptolemy's Almagest, only there are fewer books - six instead of thirteen. Copernicus easily proved that the planets move reciprocally, that is, in circular orbits.

The mathematical part of the book contains information about the calculations of the location of stars, the Sun and planets in the sky. The principles of the Earth's orbit around the Sun were described by Copernicus using the rule of precession of the equinoxes. Ptolemy could not explain it, but Copernicus absolutely speaks about it from the point of view of kinematics. Copernicus mentions in his work the principles and laws of motion of the Moon and planets, and examines the nature and causes of solar eclipses.

Ultimate theory heliocentric theory the world of Nicolaus Copernicus was formed in the form of seven postulates that completely rejected the geocentric system. She had a huge influence on the formation of the worldview of the descendants of Copernicus in the study of the astronomical picture of the world.

Five hundred years of recognition

Active scientific activity Copernicus continued until 1531. He focused on medicine, and, as far as possible, tried to finally prepare his book for publication. scientific theory. Historians and biographers of Copernicus do not agree on the question of whether he managed to see the book printed. On May 24, 1543, while in a coma, he died after a severe stroke. The remains of the burial of the brilliant Pole were discovered in Frombork Cathedral in 2005, identified and reburied with grandiose honors in the same place on May 20, 2010. Only in 1854 did Jan Baranowski publish the complete works of Copernicus in Polish and Latin.

Nicolaus Copernicus is immortalized by his descendants in hundreds of monuments and names. Transuranium element Periodic table Mendeleev No. 112 is called “copernicium”. In the vastness of the Universe lives a small planet (1322) Copernicus.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Copernicus (1473-1543) - Polish astronomer, creator of the heliocentric system of the world. He made a revolution in natural science, abandoning the doctrine of the central position of the Earth, accepted for many centuries. He explained the visible movements of the celestial bodies by the rotation of the Earth around its axis and the revolution of the planets (including the Earth) around the Sun. Copernicus outlined his teachings in his work “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres” (1543), which was banned Catholic Church from 1616 to 1828.

Kolya Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in the Polish city of Toruń into the family of a merchant who came from Germany. He was the fourth child in the family. He most likely received his primary education at a school located near his home at the Church of St. John the Great. Until the age of ten, Kolya grew up in an atmosphere of prosperity and contentment. Carefree childhood ended suddenly and quite early, barely ten years old, when Nicholas was ten years old, when the “pestilence” - a plague epidemic, a frequent guest and a formidable scourge of humanity at that time, visited Toruń, and one of its first victims was Nicolaus Copernicus the father. Lukas Wachenrode, his mother's brother, took care of his nephew's education and future fate.

In the second half of October 1491, Nicolaus Copernicus, together with his brother Andrzej, arrived in Krakow and enrolled in the Faculty of Arts at the local university. After its completion in 1496, Copernicus went on a long journey to Italy.

In the fall, Nikolai, together with his brother Andrzej, found himself in Bologna, which was then part of the Papal States and famous for its university. At that time, the law faculty with the departments of civil and canonical, ecclesiastical law was especially popular here, and Nikolai enrolled in this faculty.

It was in Bologna that Copernicus developed an interest in astronomy, which determined his scientific interests. On the evening of March 9, 1497, together with the astronomer Domenico Maria Novara, Nicholas made his first scientific observation. After it, it became clear that the distance to the Moon when it is in quadrature is approximately the same as during a new or full moon. The discrepancy between the theory of Claudius Ptolemy and the discovered facts amused me to think...

In the first months of 1498, Nicolaus Copernicus was confirmed in absentia as a canon of the Frombork Chapter; a year later, Andrzej Copernicus also became a canon of the same chapter. However, the very fact of receiving these positions did not reduce the financial difficulties of the brothers; life in Bologna, which attracted many wealthy foreigners, was not cheap, and in October 1499 the Copernicians found themselves completely without a livelihood. They were rescued by Canon Bernard Skulteti, who came from Poland and later met them several times in their life.

Then Nikolai a short time returns to Poland, but just a year later he goes back to Italy, where he studies medicine at the University of Padua and receives a doctorate in theology from the University of Ferrara. Copernicus returned to his homeland at the end of 1503 as a comprehensively educated man. He settled first in the city of Lidzbark, and then took the position of canon in Frombork, a fishing town at the mouth of the Vistula.

The astronomical observations begun by Copernicus in Italy were continued, albeit on a limited scale, in Lidzbark. But he deployed them with particular intensity in Frombork, despite the inconvenience due to the high latitude of this place, which made it difficult to observe the planets, and due to frequent fogs from the Vistula Lagoon, significant cloudiness and cloudy skies over this northern area.

The invention of the telescope was still a long way off, and the best instruments for pre-telescopic astronomy did not yet exist. With the help of instruments of that time, the accuracy of astronomical observations was brought to one or two minutes. The most famous instrument used by Copernicus was the triquetrum, a parallactic instrument. The second device used by Copernicus to determine the angle of inclination of the ecliptic, “horoscopes”, sundial, a type of quadrant.

Despite the obvious difficulties, in the Small Commentary, written around 1516, Nicolaus Copernicus had already given a preliminary statement of his teaching, or rather, of his hypotheses at that time. He did not consider it necessary to present mathematical proofs in it, since they were intended for a more extensive work.

On November 3, 1516, Nicolaus Copernicus was elected to the post of manager of the chapter's estates in the Olsztyn and Pieniżny districts. In the autumn of 1519, Copernicus' powers in Olsztyn expired, and he returned to Frombork, but this time he was not really able to devote himself to astronomical observations to test his hypotheses. There was a war with the crusaders.

At the height of the war, at the beginning of November 1520, Nicolaus Copernicus was again elected administrator of the chapter's properties in Olsztyn and Pienienzno. By that time, Copernicus turned out to be the eldest not only in Olsztyn, but also in the whole of Warmia - the bishop and almost all members of the chapter, having left Warmia, were holed up in safe places. Having taken command of the small garrison of Olsztyn, Copernicus took measures to strengthen the defense of the castle-fortress, taking care of installing guns, creating a supply of ammunition, provisions and water. Copernicus, unexpectedly showing determination and remarkable military talent, managed to defend Olsztyn from the enemy.

Personal courage and determination did not go unnoticed - soon after the truce was concluded in April 1521, Nicolaus Copernicus was appointed Commissioner of Warmia. In February 1523, before the election of a new bishop, Copernicus was elected administrator general of Warnia, the highest position he had to hold. In the autumn of the same year, after the selection of a bishop, he was appointed chancellor of the chapter. Only after 1530 did Copernicus's administrative activities narrow somewhat.

Nevertheless, it was the twenties that accounted for a significant part of the astronomical results of N. Copernicus. It was possible to make many observations. So, around 1523, observing the planets at the moment of opposition, i.e. when the planet is in the point of the celestial sphere opposite to the Sun, Nicolaus Copernicus made an important discovery; he refuted the opinion that the position of planetary orbits in space remains stationary. The line of apses - a straight line connecting the points of the orbit at which the planet is closest to the Sun and most distant from it, changes its position compared to what was observed 1300 years earlier and recorded in Ptolemy's Almagest.

But most importantly, by the beginning of the thirties, work on the creation of a new theory and its presentation in his work “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres” was basically completed. By that time, the system of the world structure proposed by the ancient Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy had existed for almost one and a half millennia. It consisted in the fact that the Earth rests motionless in the center of the Universe, and the Sun and other planets revolve around it. Ptolemy's theory did not explain many phenomena well known to astronomers, in particular the loop-like movement of planets across the visible sky. But its provisions were considered unshakable, since they were in good agreement with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

Long before Nicolaus Copernicus, the ancient Greek scientist Aristarchus of Samos argued that the Earth moves around the Sun. But he could not yet experimentally confirm his teaching.

Observing the movement of celestial bodies, N. Copernicus came to the conclusion that Ptolemy’s theory was incorrect. After thirty years of hard work, long observations and complex mathematical calculations, he convincingly proved that the Earth is only one of the planets and that all planets revolve around the Sun. True, Copernicus still believed that the stars are motionless and are located on the surface of a huge sphere, at a great distance from the Earth. This was due to the fact that at that time there were no such powerful telescopes with which one could observe the sky and stars.

Having discovered that the Earth and the planets are satellites of the Sun, Nicolaus Copernicus was able to explain the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky, the strange entanglement in the movement of some planets, as well as the apparent rotation of the sky. Copernicus believed that we perceive the movement of celestial bodies in the same way as the movement various items on Earth when we ourselves are in motion. When we are sailing in a boat on the surface of a river, it seems that the boat and we are motionless in it, and the banks are floating in the opposite direction. In the same way, to an observer on Earth, it seems that the Earth is motionless, and the Sun is moving around it. In fact, it is the Earth that moves around the Sun and makes a full revolution in its orbit during the year.

In the twenties, Nicolaus Copernicus gained fame as a skilled doctor. He expanded the knowledge he acquired in Padua throughout his life, regularly becoming acquainted with the latest medical literature. The fame of an outstanding physician was well deserved - Copernicus managed to save many patients from serious and intractable illnesses. And among his patients were all the contemporary bishops of Warmia, dignitaries Royal and Ducal Prussia, Tiedemann Giese, Alexander Skulteti, many canons of the Warmian Chapter. He often provided assistance and ordinary people. There is no doubt that Copernicus used the recommendations of his predecessors creatively, carefully monitoring the condition of the patients and trying to understand the mechanism of action of the drugs he prescribed.

After 1531, his activity in the affairs of the chapter and its social activity, although back in 1541 he served as chairman of the chapter's construction fund. Affected long years life. 60 years is an age that in the 16th century was considered quite advanced. But Copernicus' scientific activity did not stop. He did not stop practicing medicine, and his fame as a skilled physician grew steadily.

In mid-July 1528, present as a representative of the Frombork Chapter at the sejmik in Toruń, N.N. Copernicus met the then famous medalist and metal carver Matz Schilling, who had recently moved to Torun from Krakow. There is an assumption that Copernicus knew Schilling from Krakow, moreover, on his mother’s side he was distantly related to him. In Schilling's house, Copernicus met his daughter - young and beautiful Anna, and soon, compiling one of his astronomical tables, in the title of the column allocated to the planet Venus, Copernicus in the sign of this planet outlines an outline of ivy leaves - the Shilling family mark, which was placed on all coins and medals minted by Anna’s father...

As a canon, Nicolaus Copernicus had to observe celibacy - a vow of celibacy. But over the years, he felt more and more lonely, more and more clearly felt the need for a close and devoted being, and then his meeting with Anna...

Years passed. They seemed to have become accustomed to Anna's presence in Copernicus's house. However, a denunciation followed to the newly elected bishop. During his illness, Dantiscus calls Doctor Nicholas and in a conversation with him, as if by chance, remarks that it would not be appropriate for Copernicus to have such a young and such a distant relative with him - he should find someone less young and more closely related.

And Copernicus is forced to “take action.” Anna will soon move into her own home. And then she had to leave Frombork. This undoubtedly cast a shadow over the last years of Nicolaus Copernicus's life.

In May 1542, Copernicus’s book “On the sides and angles of triangles, both flat and spherical” was published in Wittenberg, with detailed tables of sines and cosines attached. But the scientist did not live to see the time when the book “On the Rotations of the Celestial Spheres” spread throughout the world. He was dying when friends brought him the first copy of his book, printed in one of the Nuremberg printing houses. Copernicus died on May 24, 1543.

Church leaders did not immediately understand the blow to religion that Copernicus’ book dealt. For some time his work was freely distributed among scientists. Only when Copernicus had followers, his teaching was declared heresy, and the book was included in the “Index” of prohibited books. Only in 1835 did the Pope exclude the book of Copernicus from it and thereby, as it were, acknowledge the existence of his teaching in the eyes of the church. (Samin D.K. 100 great scientists. - M.: Veche, 2000)

More about Nicolaus Copernicus:

Nicolaus Copernicus - famous astronomer, transformer of this science and laid the foundation modern idea about the world system. There was a lot of debate about whether Nicolaus Copernicus was a Pole or a German; now his nationality is beyond doubt, since a list of students at the University of Padua was found, in which Copernicus is recorded among the Poles who studied there.

Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Thorn, into a merchant family. Having lost 9 summer child father and remaining in the care of his maternal uncle, Canon Watzelrod, Kolya Copernicus entered the University of Krakow in 1491, where he studied mathematics, medicine and theology with equal zeal. After completing the course, Copernicus traveled through Germany and Italy, listened to lectures at different universities, and at one time even served as a professor in Rome; in 1503 he returned to Krakow and lived here for seven whole years, being a university professor and engaged in astronomical observations.

However, the noisy life of university corporations was not to Copernicus’s liking, and in 1510 he moved to Frauenburg, a small town on the banks of the Vistula, where he spent the rest of his life, being a canon of the Catholic Church and devoting his leisure time to astronomy and free treatment of the sick; Moreover, when it was necessary, Nicolaus Copernicus devoted his energies and practical work: according to his project, a new coin system was introduced in Poland, and in the city of Frauenburg he built a hydraulic machine, which supplied all houses with water.

In depth of consideration, Nicolaus Copernicus was undeniably the greatest astronomer of his time, but as a practitioner he was inferior even to the Arab astronomers; however, this is not his fault: he had the poorest means at his disposal and he made all the tools with his own hands. While thinking about the Ptolemaic system of the world, Copernicus was amazed at its complexity and artificiality, and, studying the works of ancient philosophers, especially Niketas of Syracuse, Philolaus and others, he came to the conclusion that not the Earth, but the Sun should be the fixed center of the universe.

Based on this position, Nicolaus Copernicus very simply explained all the apparent confusion of the movements of the planets, but, not yet knowing the true paths of the planets and accepting them as circular, he was still forced to partially retain the epicycles and trims of the ancients for the explanation various inequalities movements. These epicycles and trims were finally discarded only by Johannes Kepler.

The main and almost only work of Nicolaus Copernicus, the fruits of his more than 30 years of work in Frauenburg, is: “De revolutionibns orbium coelestium”. The work was published in Regensburg in 1043 and dedicated to Pope Paul III; it is divided into 6 parts and was printed under the supervision of Copernicus’s best and most beloved student, Rheticus; the author had the joy of seeing and holding this creation in his hands even on his deathbed.

The first part talks about the sphericity of the world and the Earth, and also sets out the rules for solving right-angled and spherical triangles; the second gives the foundations of spherical astronomy and the rules for calculating the apparent positions of stars and planets in the firmament. The third talks about precession or anticipation of the equinoxes, explaining it by the retrograde movement of the line of intersection of the equator with the ecliptic. In the fourth - about the Moon, in the fifth about planets in general, and in the sixth - about the reasons for changes in the latitudes of the planets.

A solitary life and the later publication of his work saved Nicolaus Copernicus from the persecution to which his followers were subjected; he died peacefully and was buried in Thorn in the Church of St. John. Only in the 19th century. Monuments were erected to him in Warsaw, Krakow, Thorn and Regensburg. The complete works of Copernicus were published by Baranovsky in Warsaw in 1854 in Latin and Polish.